Death by Aptonoth Rewrite
by HyperBrachydios
Summary: A rewrite of the original Death by Aptonoth because that was terrible, this one's slightly less terrible.
1. Desert Snarf Hunting

**?**

* * *

The hunter and the monster stood, facing each other down.

The monster struck forwards.

An aura appeared around the hunter and they dodged around the attack.

The hunter ran forwards, guided by this aura and attacked with their weapon, being supported by everything they had lost until now.

The battle continued onwards until finally one stood victorious, wounded.

* * *

 **Sandy Plains, 1345**

* * *

An incredibly short hunter ran through the desert, fearing for his life.

He suddenly stopped as the sand in front of him moved, digging his heels into the ground.

A Nibelsnarf burst out of the ground and the hunter drew his bow to face them.

Or at least he would've, but while attempting to throw it through the air, catch it and pull it back so he could look cool and/or stylish while doing so he accidentally dropped it onto the ground.

The hunter suddenly dropped down to pick it up the Nibelsnarf jumped forward, not giving him the time to dodge out of the way.

The hunter braced for impact, when suddenly an armoured defense crab burst out of the sand to defend him.

The hunter then took advantage of this to pick up his bow and pulled back, shooting off some arrows from the side.

The Nibelsnarf turned to face the hunter attacking it, not understanding why it was blocked but not wishing to start a fight with the other monster.

In that moment it let its guard down, the Daimyo Hermitaur hit it over the head and briefly stunned it.

The Nibelsnarf understood that for some reason, these two were aligned and attempted to escape.

It dug underneath the sand to escape, but as it swam away the hunter pulled something out of his pocket and threw it.

The sonic bomb exploded just above the Nibelsnarf, causing it to instinctively leap out of the sand.

As it landed back on the ground, the hunter yelled "Daimyo, now!"

The Daimyo Hermitaur shot out a beam of pressurised water, connecting with the toppled sand wyvern.

The pressure from this also pushed it away from them, which would've not been bad normally but the Nibelsnarf was right next to a cliff.

The Nibelsnarf fell into the ravine.

The hunter knew that this probably wouldn't kill it.

He began randomly swearing, which was so loud it attracted other hunters.

One of these hunters, who had an almighty afro on his head and a gunlance on his back, spoke first "Joseph, the hell are ya yelling bout now."

Joseph paused for a second to collect his thoughts and story.

"Well ya see here, Zach…" he began.

The hunter with an afro nodded.

"I found the Nibelsnarf, then I started running"

"Why didn't ya send out a signal?" A glasses-wearing hunter with a switch axe responded .

"Shaddup Ben, I'm getting to it. Anyways, so I found it, then it began chasing me so I didn't really have time to send out one, then Daimyo stepped in to help out, then we drove it off and it kinda sorta maybe fell off that there cliff into the caves below."

A silence rang out among the hunters.

Ben then charged forward, drawing his switch axe and yelling at Joseph for how badly he handled that, while Zach held him back.

Quickly thinking of a way out, Joseph changed the subject "Oh yeah, where's Callum by the way?"

"He found the Nibelsnarf too and he's in base camp now, should be back any minute."

On cue, a hunter a fairly tall with short, black hair came sprinting towards them yelling "Where the hell's the bastard at!?"

Zach pointed to the cliff and Callum started to run in that direction, the others followed him.

The four looked over the ravine, followed by Daimyo.

"Do ya think we can get down there safely?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah, we definitely can." Ben responded, kicking him down.

He then jumped down himself, followed by Callum, Zach and finally Daimyo.

* * *

With the exception of Joseph, they all landed on their feet, albeit somewhat shakily. They couldn't see the Nibelsnarf anywhere, but they did see something falling towards them.

A Jaggi landed on the ground.

"Ah! Sanchez!" Callum yelled, happily running towards his monster.

"It's a damn shame Zappy and Plessy can't be in this desert," Zach thought "I feel kinda left out."

Now having regrouped, the six pressed further into the caves, eventually they found the Nibelsnarf sleeping.

"Welp, ya know the drill." Ben announced, getting out his barrel bombs.

The other did the same and finally Zach used a wyvern's fire, blowing it up.

He landed next to the other hunters as the Nibelsnarf scrambled to its feet.

They didn't give it any time to rest, rushing in and attacking it.

The Nibelsnarf still managed to cling onto life, lunging at Ben. He was unable to dodge, but he still ended up blocking it as he was in sword mode. Still, it was hardly built for this, some damage being caused. Great anger appeared on his face, so he started slashing wildly at it. About three slashes of these hit, while they were hardly accurate strikes recognising it couldn't sustain many attacks the sand leviathan dove into the sand, attempting to disappear.

Figuring Ben wouldn't be able to hear anything anyways in his blind rage, Zach quickly signalled the others to cover their ears before chucking in a sonic bomb. The Nibelsnarf wasn't able to move clear in time, so it surfaced. Callum quickly rushed in, ready to fish it out, but Ben had no patience for this, instead sticking his weapon into the monster's throat and detonating it, everyone being knocked backwards.

The Nibelsnarf was dead, but Ben still continued, getting ready to slash it to pieces with his axe, but was interrupted by Sanchez tail-whipping him in the stomach. "I WASN'T DONE, WHAT THE HELL'D YA DO THAT FOR YA DAMN RAPTOR!?" Ben screamed at Sanchez. "We can't carve it if ya cut it to ribbons." Zach explained.

After carving, they sent of the signal to say that the quest was done and hoped that the guild would be able to find some way of getting the Nibelsnarf out of the ravine.

In the end, the cart felynes said that they'd need to pay extra to get it out of the ravine, so they just had to drag it up to the top.

By the time the sun was setting they arrived back in Port Tanzia.

* * *

Zach and Ben went off to go check on their monsters, so that left Joseph and Callum to sit there and watch the last ships arrive for the night.

Finally, the moon was high above the sea, illuminating it brightly. The only reason they could see outside of that was the lights from the port behind them and lighthouse which stared them down.

The walls of the town separated it from the outside world, it was its own existence in here.

A place of complete peace, where they had found themselves situated for the past three years or so.

It wasn't as though they knew much outside of the New World. The Old World's where the Guild started, but outside of a few reports of Elder Dragons they heard nothing of it. Apparently it was just one large island, rather than a bunch of them, though Joseph found that difficult to believe, for some reason or another.

"We're back." Zach announced, walking up to him and cutting the exposition off.

"Took ya long enough…" Joseph muttered.

"Whaddya mean?" Ben asked "Weren't gone that long!"

"Ya were off for like… two hours." Joseph corrected.

"How the hell'd two hours've passed?" Ben snapped back.

"Dunno, sure did though. I was able to give a full explanation of where we are before ya got back!"

"Like hell's that gonna take ya two hours." Zach said "Just say we're in Tanzia. There ain't much to it."

"I had to explain what it's like, dude, it sounds super cool and shit, trust me."

There was a silence before Callum finally stated "Ya were thirty seven minutes and fifteen seconds."

Ben would've normally yelled "Told ya!", but instead this time he had to ask "Why'd ya count?"

"We can't all give exposition…" he sadly muttered.

They decided it was for the best to not press further, so the conversation ended right there. Eventually, after having gotten something to eat, they returned to their huts and crashed.

So there were, right in the centre of the New World, having not really known anywhere outside these islands. Of course, they had known places other than Port Tanzia and they were bound to leave someday, but for now, it's not as though that mattered to them. They could just keep drifting along, being alive. Joseph was sure that he'd reach his ideals someday, if he just kept waiting long enough. But for now, all he could do was just be alive.

"Ain't like that's a bad way of livin'." He thought to himself. "I'm sure that the thing I wanna kill'll appear before me someday."

So, Joseph walked off following the others, to something that was somewhere between different and the exact same, somewhat alive for now.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

So yeah, here we are, at the rewrite. I'm uploading this all at once, so this is the only comment until the end. So yeah, if you go to the next chapter you might notice that it was never in the original, because I added filler to get the chapter count to 18 to not fuck with the multiverse.

If you're new then welcome, for context this is a rewrite of a fic that was written in 2014 which was also bad and written by a 12 year old. It was uploaded by my bro, but I wrote half and he just went "Eh you take it" so I did, and we're here. This rewrite is in place to make things make sense in the sequel, DBA G, which you should also read and give me views.

That has a recap but like fuck it more views is good.

As for updates on G, this was originally meant to come out in December-January. But that didn't happen so they start soonish. There isn't a schedule it's just happening when they're done.


	2. Gathering New Members

This peace continued for a short while, until a little while after the start of the new year.

"So yeah," Zach began "Ya know those posters I put up a little while back asking people to join our group?"

"No." All three responded.

"...Well I did, so anyway we got three applicants. So, we're gonna go on a hunt with em as a test."

"How? That'd make seven of us."

"Well, we can split it up by two hunts."

"So, there'll be two of us on each, right?"

"Yeah… we should probably see what's available."

There was a quest for a Gobul as well as one for a Crimson Qurupeco, both in the Deserted Island.

"I'll take the Peco." Ben quickly uttered.

"Then, I'll go for Gobul." Zach responded.

"Uhhhh…" Callum thought aloud "Peco."

"So that leaves me on Gobul, huh…" Joseph finished.

They then walked around for a while, before Zach stopped. "This is the place." He said, looking at the three hunters.

* * *

The first looked relatively old compared to the rest, with black eyes and brown, curly hair that reached his neck. What was most noticeable about him was the fanged blade carried on his back, constructed from Tigrex parts.

"Name's Riko, nice to meet you."

The second was a woman with a more serious expression. She had incredibly short hair, and a black lance strapped to her back.

"Alexandra. What are we going to hunt?"

Then finally, that left someone who appeared to stick out more, due to his green hair. But that was really the only noteworthy thing about him, other than that he was carrying around a hammer.  
"My name's Anthony, I guess I'm here for the hunting."

"All right, since there are seven of us, we should prolly take two hunts." Zach explained.

"Why? There's nothing stopping us." Alexandra questioned.

"Well the Five stuff's old superstition, but it'd be safer for a first hunt to follow it, y'get me?"

Team A consisted of Zach, Joseph and Callum. Upon hearing the first option was to fight a Lagiacrus, both Ben and Anthony immediately went for the other without checking what it is, with Alexandra and Callum joining them.

* * *

 **Deserted Island**

* * *

The group arrived at base camp. Zach sat by the water and waited for a few minutes, to which Riko was confused. After a few minutes, a Royal Ludroth emerged. Riko began to run at it, ready to draw his sword, when Zach stopped him. "This guy's Zappy, he's probably my best friend." He explained. "Anyways, ya know the plan, right? Wait on the shore, while we go chase it out of the water, then ya capture it." The others nodded, so Zappy dived back into the water, with Zach clinging to his mane.

Joseph and Riko then walked off, before Daimyo showed up. Riko got ready to fight again, but was stopped by Joseph this time. "This's Daimyo, he's the same deal as Zappy."

Zappy stayed near the surface of the water, Zach surfing on his back. Zach surveyed the landscape, noticing Epioth that had appeared to his left. A shadow silently approached. He got Zappy's attention, pointing in its direction.

They both waited, unmoving. The Lord of the Seas made its dramatic appearance at last, the prey quickly attempting to escape, to hardly any avail. It tackled one and dragged it out of sight. Upon this chance appearing, Zappy began to rush in its direction.

The monster sensed them, looking up from its meal to see a Ludroth body slam it at full speed. It was knocked several metres backwards and spun around to face the opposition, charging up to attack. Zappy went for another body slam, but this time it was ready, coiling itself around him. Just as it was about to attack, it was pushed back by a lance. Zach pulled the trigger, causing his target to release Zappy and back off.

Zappy quickly recovered and Zach grabbed on to his mane once more, headed directly for the Lagiacrus again. The Lagiacrus dodged the charge, but just when it thought it was safe a gunlance hit it. Zach kicked off Zappy, then readying a wyvern's fire. Since it had its back to a wall, the Lagiacrus was unable to properly dodge, receiving the brunt of the blast.

After a few seconds of writhing in pain, it ceased. Zach started to back off, which the Lagiacrus took to lunge forwards, but was blocked by sponge. Zappy then rolled over to slam it back into the wall, before backing off so that Zach could climb back on.

The Lagiacrus looked at its opponents and decided that it wasn't worth fighting, so it turned to escape. It sunk further into the ocean, but Zappy chased after it. The Lagiacrus then suddenly turned around, going back past Zappy, now headed for the shore.

Everything had gone as planned, now all that was left for the others to capture it.

The others rested by the shore, with Riko on the ground and Joseph on Daimyo's shell.

"Ain't it uncomfortable up there?" Riko asked.  
"Nah, it's pretty great." Joseph said, correcting him.  
"Lemme try it, then." Riko asked.  
"Nah." Joseph quickly answered.

"Why?" Riko questioned, followed by the observation "You're tiny."

Joseph stood up and started to draw an arrow, but was stopped by Daimyo's claw. He then got back down.

"So, where'd you come from?" Riko asked

"Loc Lac. What about yerself?" Joseph replied.

"Jumbo. Guess you were pretty lucky escaping there, for somewhere where there was actual work, huh?" Riko joked.

"Yeah, somethin' like that." Joseph muttered. "What about you. Heard Jumbo ain't that bad for hunters these days."

"Well…" Riko began, before a Lagiacrus leaped onto the land, roaring at them.

They got up to fight, but sick of being rushed the Lagiacrus lunged straight at them. Daimyo quickly pulled up a large rock and placed it between them. The leviathan's head connected with a loud thunk noise, to which it then instantly dropped to the ground, unmoving. All three of them stared at it in silence, waiting for the fight to resume. The Lagiacrus didn't get back up. Panic began.

Joseph noticed Zappy quickly approaching. He pointed out this out Daimyo and both of them tried to work out what to do, before Daimyo reached the solution of picking it up by the neck and flinging it into the distance.

Zappy then arrived a few seconds after, Zach surfing on his back. "Hey," he asked "did you guys see the Lagiacrus?"

"No, why?" Joseph shakily questioned in response.

"Weird, thought I chased it here, musta lost it. I'll just go back to lookin'." Zappy then turned around and headed back the way he came.

"We've been saved…" Joseph murmured. "Now we gotta work out what ta do."

* * *

They thought for a little while.

"We could just throw it back and get a new one." Joseph suggested.

"That'd be kinda… poaching." Riko replied.

"Oh yeah, that old thing…" Joseph realised.

"What if we just trapped it anyway?" Riko suggested "It's gonna die anyway, so..."

"Sure." Joseph responded, setting a pitfall trap.

"Why not shock trap?" Riko asked.

"Don't got any, that's why Zach had to get it outta the water." Joseph explained.

The pitfall trap was set up, but the Lagiacrus didn't fall in.

"Do we need to push it?" Riko asked.

All three of them went to one side of the Lagiacrus and in unison pushed its body into the trap. Just as it worked, Zach and Zappy arrived, to witness this.

The Lagiacrus fell into the trap, just as Zach rushed at them.

"Seriously, what the hell's wrong with ya!?" He yelled "How'd you even manage to kill it, it was barely injured!"

As he loudly complained, he swung his gunlance around for effect. This provided a problem, when the Lagiacrus revealed itself to have only been unconscious this entire time, followed by Zach accidentally whacking it across the face and it crashing into the ground.

Silence broke out.

"Wow Zach," Joseph began "what the hell's wrong with ya?"

"Ah come on, I couldn't even see it!" Zach aggressively came back.

* * *

The argument continued for a while, so long that the Lagiacrus revealed that it was just unconscious again, sneaking back towards the ocean.

"Wait, how are we gonna trap it now?" Zach asked.

Riko then held up a shock trap.

Both Zach and Joseph were silent, before Zach finally pointed out "Why didn't you just bring that up before?"

"I just assumed you had one." Riko answered.

"Why would we've had ta chase it outta the water if we had one!?"

"I dunno, I just figured you knew what you were doing." Riko explained.

This argument continued for a while, while Daimyo walked over to the weakened Lord of the Seas, grabbed it by the throat with his right claw and chucked it back into the pitfall, then dropped two tranquilisers out of his left claw.

Joseph turned to him and said "Thanks, bud."

Eventually, the argument ended and they returned to Port Tanzia.

"So," Zach asked "You gonna join our huntin' group?"

"Sure, not like I got anything better." Riko responded.

They waited a while for the others to get back, until finally they arrived, injured.

"What happened?" Zach asked.

"Backup." Callum weakly answered.

With that, everyone in the other group understood everything that happened.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	3. The Green Devil (1)

The team consisting of four hunters trudged through the Flooded Forest. As they neared a river, Anthony suddenly became smug.

The others were confused, until he yelled "Come on, Wave!" Followed by a Lagiacrus with a long scar down its chest leaping from the water. Alexandra instantly charged, until Anthony interrupted her with "This guy's with me, don't hit him."

He then looked over to Ben and Callum and asked "Why didn't you guys react?"

"We're the same deal." Ben explained, as Plessy jumped out of the water and landed next to Wave, while Sanchez silently materialised into the area.

"Oh." Anthony disappointedly responded, attempting to ignore Wave having instantly falling asleep behind him.

Ben and Callum laughed at him for this, while Alexandra continued to walk on, seeing the interaction as pointless.

They quickly hurried after her, but before they could she noticed the target.

* * *

The Crimson Qurupeco was attempting to catch fish swimming by, to not much effect. Without thinking for a second about strategy, Alexandra sprinted straight for it, piercing its side before it could react, then quickly pulling back. The brightly coloured bird wyvern then began to bash its flints together, creating electricity and pouncing at her, however this strike was quite easily blocked, Alexandra only being pushed back slightly.

She struck again, this time repeatedly, but midway through the Qurupeco was suddenly knocked aside by a pressurised water laser. Ben then charged straight for it and began slashing wildly without concern for his stamina, Callum doing the same. Sanchez just kicked it a lot.

Eventually, Anthony and Wave appeared, having just caught up. As the Peco got back up, Anthony hit it on the skull, causing it to nearly collapse but remain standing. It then pounced on Anthony, but was tackled by Wave, who coiled himself around it and clamped his jaws into the bird.

Unable to move its wings or escape, the Peco had only way out left. It puffed out its chest, its vocal sac becoming noticeable, and imitated a monster cry.

A deep, intimidating roar rang out through the forest. Upon hearing this, everyone present except the Peco momentarially froze to the spot. Fear ran through them, screaming at them to escape. Wave pulled away from the Peco, which now felt as though victory was assured.

In its smugness, it began to ignore its surroundings, so it didn't even notice as the devourer of worlds chose the easier prey first.

Callum felt kinda sick watching the Peco get ripped to shreds, but on the bright side the quest was done now. Another upside was that they had a few seconds to plan before the Jho was done eating.

"So uh, plan on gettin' outta here?" He asked the others.

"Swimming seems pretty good, seeing as how we've got two leviathans." Anthony answered.

Callum turned his head "Sure? Ben?"

"Yeah, I'm for that. Not fightin' this thing." He answered.

"That's kinda surprising." Callum pointed out.

"I'm angry, not retarded." Ben explained "What kinda idiot'd take on a Deviljho if they didn't have ta?"

They then realised Alexandra wasn't there and finally noticed she had started trying to fight the Deviljho.

The others were in complete silence, until Ben eventually yelled "WHAT THE HELL'RE YA DOIN!?"

Alexandra didn't answer, simply pressing ahead. The Deviljho finished consuming the former target and turned its attention to the hunters.

As Alexandra drew near, it slammed its foot into the ground, briefly stunning everything in the surrounding area. It then attempted to bite at her, but she quickly reacted and hopped backwards, before charging forwards and thrusting her lance forwards. She then pulled back slightly and struck it repeatedly, unrelenting barrage of attacks.

Yet, the Deviljho was hardly affected. It roared once more, then swung wildly with its tail.

Alexandra just about raised her shield in time, while she still sustained damage it could've been far worse. As she was knocked near the others, she finally answered the question from before.

* * *

"I'm fighting the Deviljho." Explained Alexandra "I will be the strongest hunter, as if someone who runs the moment something strong shows up could get there. So if you're not willing to fight it, then just run and get out of the way."

"You're hardly gonna be the best if yer dead." Ben pointed out.

"If I lose, then I wouldn't have been able to make it to begin with." She returned.

She then charged forwards again, leaving the others behind.

The Deviljho closed the distance by leaping towards her, she just managed herself in time to avoid the attack. She then hopped backwards to recover some distance between them, then went back to stabbing at it.

Anthony turned to jump off the cliff into the water, assuming the others would do the same, until he heard them talking.

"Well, I sure ain't as obsessed with glory as she is," Ben began "But we gotta do somethin', yeah? It'd kinda go against that whole helpin' others thing if we didn't."

"Yup, pretty much." Callum confirmed "Having principles can be a bitch sometimes."

Ben laughed. "I dunno what that even means."

With that, the two hunters and the two monsters charged towards the Deviljho. While Anthony would've liked to run for it, he realised that it'd look incredibly bad to do so, so he stopped Wave just before he dived off and climbed atop his back, the two now charging forwards.

The Deviljho noticed them coming, assuming the Lagiacrus to be the largest threat due to its electricity. It swung its tail at Alexandra, without the intent to harm but simply to push her out of the way, before raising its left foot up and slamming it down, causing a tremor.

Most were stunned, except for Sanchez and Callum, as Sanchez had jumped with the right timing. He landed again, but the Deviljho underestimated his strength, due to appearing like a regular Great Jaggi.

It attempted to bite him, but Sanchez quickly dodged to the side, while Callum leapt off his back. Callum slashed at it as he flew past, but then ended up flailing through the air once he was clear of it, only for Sanchez to catch him once more. Before they could go for another pass, the others had already recovered, as the Deviljho was in the side by a pressurised water beam. Ben then charged towards it, beginning to slash away it. Wave then slid in, Anthony jumping off his back to smash his hammer into its head.

This irritated the Deviljho, as it roared, stunning everyone once more. Its body started to turn red, enraged. It then swung its head around, unleashing dragon breath.

Ben found himself lying on the ground, struggling to get up. The only one left standing was Alexandra, still holding the intent of fighting.

Suddenly the Deviljho froze up, as if it was sensing something the rest couldn't. Ben thought he heard something, but he didn't have time to think about that, as he yelled "Plessy! Let's get outta here!"

Plessy then wildly hip checked, knocking everyone towards the cliff. Alexandra managed to recover before falling off, but Plessy hip checked her again. The seven of them fell, the monsters hitting the water first. Looking up, Ben heard an explosion, but that was all he could understand of what was going on above the fighting. Silently, they returned to land, before finally talking.

* * *

"I said that I was going to take it on, why did you get in the way?" Alexandra asked.

The other three hunters paused for a second, just to check if they actually heard what was just said.

"Y'know that ya were pretty much 'bout ta die, right?" Callum asked in return.

"If I had died, then it just would've been that I wasn't strong enough." Alexandra hastily replied.

She then began to walk off, but was cut off by the question of "Why?" being asked by Ben.

"...I've decided that I'm going to be the strongest hunter. So of course, if I were to lose to a monster, then I wouldn't achieve that."

"That's it?" He questioned her again.

"What? It's better than simply becoming complacent with nothing. If you just stay at the bottom all the time, then eventually something that you're not ready for will come along." Alexandra explained.

"That thinkin's dumb," Ben rebuked her argument "and yer still takin' too many risks anyways."

Alexandra justified her actions with "A Deviljho is something meant to be destroyed as soon as possible, they can easily destroy an ecosystem. Sure, I could report it and have another team sent out, but how much damage would it cause in that time? As a hunter, I'd be failing."

"Don't bullshit, if you can't take it out then yer just gonna make things worse." Ben still refused to agree.

There was an awkward silence.

"You're complaining that I'm taking risks, but aren't you the same?" Alexandra questioned.

"Wazzat mean?"

"You didn't need to aid me, you could've just escaped." She pointed out.

Ben thought about this for a minute, before finally giving yet another question "Whaddya think of death?"

Alexandra hesitated slightly before answering "It's natural."

"Well yeah, but that's when y'get like really old n'shit. So dying before then sucks, since y'can just not. That's why, I guess."

"That's an odd view for a hunter to have, isn't it?" Alexandra joked.

"It's not really like we got a say in being hunters, so might as well try ta make it better, right?" Ben was probably done talking now.

Ben then started to walk off, followed by Plessy, then followed by Callum and Sanchez. Anthony started following them as well, accepting that he wouldn't get to do anything today, with Wave slinking back into the water.

Alexandra turned back to the way to the Deviljho, contemplating challenging it again. After a few seconds, she then turned away, choosing to fail for now, since she had something more interesting to pursue now.

* * *

Eventually, they made their way back to Tanzia and back to the others, with Callum quickly explaining what happened, bringing things to where they were last chapter.

"So?" Zach asked "Are the two of ya gonna join?"

Anthony was frustrated that he hadn't gotten to do anything, so he quickly responded "Yeah, seems interesting." Hoping that he'd get to do something next time.

Alexandra answered, with some final hesitation involved "Yes."

"That's surprisin'." Callum pointed out "Doesn't really fit the become the strongest thing ya were goin' for."

"Well if there's a problem I'll leave." Alexandra quickly replied.

"No but like…" Callum said "I don't get it."

"Same reason as Anthony, I suppose." Explained Alexandra "This group is certainly… interesting."

The group then silently accepted this reasoning, before Zach broke this with "That went way better than I thought it'd go."

"Well yeah," Joseph replied "Why the hell would time go into designing characters if they were gonna refuse?"

While the others understood what he meant, they didn't want to disrupt reality further, so they frantically looked for a change of topic.

"Oh yeah," Ben thought aloud "We still gotta go report that Deviljho, yeah?"

He then quickly moved before further conversation could happen.

He walked up to the counter, talking to guild girl working it "There's a Deviljho in the flooded forest, it's what killed the Crimson earlier."

"Ah yeah, that. It was sighted a little while after the quest began, so a team was already dispatched to deal with it. They finished up around the same time the Crimson hunt did."

"Oh, never mind then." Ben muttered, walking off.

He thought about it for a few seconds. "So what distracted the Deviljho was likely those guys… the hell were they doin', then?"

Leaving the speculation since it didn't particularly matter, he wandered back to the others.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	4. The Green Devil (2)

On the morning of the day when Zach recruited new members into the group, a man with short black hair woke up.

He stood up, appearing to be fairly tall, then stepped outside, beginning to walk straight towards the gathering hall.

As he went through the crowd, he went through his typical routine of avoiding contact as much as possible. This wasn't due to him being bad at communication, or simply disliking it, but him seeing it as something unnecessary.

However, as he continued to move he felt something off with this routine, as though he was being watched. He could separate himself from the crowd and try to draw out whatever was watching him, but that'd be a waste of time. He had to quickly get to the gathering hall and take the highest paying quests before anyone else could. He'd just hope that the presence would disappear in the time it took him to do that.

But, as he walked into the hall, he heard something. A sound like a bullet soaring through the air, except much larger. He then stopped, the bullet like object crashing into the ground where he was about to be.

The street somehow carried on, as if not noticing this. Sean paused a moment, before stepping over it, when suddenly his leg was grabbed.

He then kicked the thing until the arm lost its grip, and stepped forwards, before the bullet finally sprung upwards.

"Sean!" A voice yelled, finally causing Sean to finally acknowledge the bullet's existence.

A relatively small blonde(?) girl with long hair was there, with a light bowgun strapped to her back.

Sean paused for a few moments, trying to work out who it was, before finally going "Oh, it's Alicia. How'd you get here?"

"That's it…?" She briefly muttered, before returning to focus "I became a hunter! And then I just found ya now!"

"Cool."

"Well, I guess your impossible-to-faze-ness doesn't change!

"So why are you here?"

"Joinin' ya."

"I don't need help."

"Yer still gettin' it."

Sean then walked away and looked at the quests, his attention instantly being taken by the urgent quest for a Deviljho that was just sighted in the flooded forest, a well paying quest.

He took the quest instantly, but as he went to leave he noticed Alicia following him.

"Yer really gonna take a Deviljho quest?" He asked

"Yeah, I said that we're teammates now, right?"

"Sure, we'll work out a plan on the way."

* * *

Instead of taking the cart to the flooded forest, Sean instead walked out of town. He then whistled and an Azure Rathalos dropped from the sky.

"Oh, so you're still with Azure." Alicia thought aloud, despite having already known that.

Sean walked up to the flying wyvern and told him "Today we're going for a Deviljho in the Flooded Forest."

Azure silently gazed over at Alicia, to which Sean informed him "She's coming with us."

Azure could vaguely remember someone matching her appearance, so he decided to accept the explanation given.

Sean climbed onto his back and waited for Alicia to respond, to which she confidently stood in place.

Sean waited a few seconds, before saying "Aight." Azure began to take off.

"Wait!" Alicia yelled.

"We already did." Sean replied "Do you wanna get on now?"

"No, it's just… I'll be there in a minute."

So Azure flew in the direction of the flooded forest for a minute, until a Pink Rathian started to close in on them, Alicia clinging to her back.

"How's this? Pretty cool, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure." Sean responded.

Alicia had no idea how to respond to that, so the rest of the journey continued in silence.

* * *

Azure circled the forest for a while, before noticing a pickle shaped monster moving around between the trees.

He silently glided down, followed by Alicia and her Rathian. However, as they landed a roar called out in the distance, which the Deviljho responded with a roar in return, before beginning to sprint towards. Azure began to follow, this time on the ground.

The Deviljho finally came to a stop, behind a smug looking Crimson Qurupeco. Near it were four hunters, as well as three monsters. Azure caught up, but remained hidden.

For a few seconds, the world remained frozen, until the Deviljho lowered its neck slightly, then clamped its jaws down on the Peco. The mimic didn't have time to register what has happening, as in a single instant its head had vanished.

The Deviljho then started to eat the rest of its prey, while Sean continued to wait. Alicia caught up and was about to move to attack, before Sean muttered "Stop."

"Why?" She quietly replied.

"We'll wait and see what happens."

"Aren't those hunters over there gonna be at risk?"  
"If it goes well for 'em, then we can join in. If it doesn't, then we can wait for it to get tired. Besides, we dunno what's going on with the monsters around 'em."

Alicia didn't agree with this, but she decided that for the time being she'd follow.

A minute passed, with the other group seeming to be on the losing side. They were finally knocked down by dragon breath, leaving them defenseless except one who remained standing, just barely.

Sean continued to wait, while Alicia looked alarmed.

"We gotta do somethin' now." She began

"Not yet, we'll take it by surprise when it starts eatin'."

"We can't just let random hunters die."

"Well, we can, really. Not like it matters much to us."

"That's not what ya would've done before, what's with ya nowadays?"

"What I used to be like isn't-"

Just then the Deviljho turned over to them, their loudness completely distracting it from what it was doing. Sean stopped his sentence midway, as the hunters disappeared off the cliff. The two duos jumped separate ways as the Deviljho crashed into the hiding spot. Azure kept his distance from the Deviljho, while Alicia's Rathian remained relatively close.

* * *

The Deviljho got ready for a stomp, causing the pink rathian to leap off the ground and strike at its side with her tail, poisoning it. In return, the Deviljho chomped at her, narrowly missing.

Alicia shot at it from above, while Sean shot at it from a distance. The Deviljho leapt towards him and Azure, narrowly missing. Azure then rose into the air. Sean kicked off his back and landed with a slide, shooting dragon sides at the Deviljho. It was distracted by him and started to pursue, going straight for a narrowly avoided bite.

As the Deviljho was distracted Azure rose higher into the sky, before finally stopping to spin around. He then headed straight for the ground, surrounding himself in fire. The Deviljho continued to focus on Sean, unable to notice the flaming wyvern bullet aimed straight for its head.

Azure's body crashed into the Deviljho, sending it straight into the ground. He still wasn't done, quickly rising into the air to finish it with a fireball once again aimed at the head. The eater of worlds finally stopped moving.

* * *

"That was super cool!" Alicia exclaimed, still on her Rathian's back. "Ya got like… a super attack name for that, right?"

"What" Sean replied.

"Somethin' like… blue storm drop, right?"

"Why would I do that."

"Because it sounds cool."

"We just did that cause Deviljhos tend to only be able to focus on one thing at a time, so if I distracted it then Azure would be able to use that."

Alicia then calmed down from the excitement of the fight and went back to how she was before, not saying anything.

* * *

They made it all the way back to town, before Sean finally decided to say something.

"Are you still mad about the lack of a name?"

Alicia looked at him with confusion, this not being what she expected. "What,no, it's… I'm mad because ya got worse!"

Regardless of whether he had been expecting this response or not, Sean's expression was unchanged. The conversation continued either way. "Worse at what?"

"Being so not-caring about anyone. I remember how you used to be, ya'd never do something like that."  
"People change all the time."

"I know that… and just kinda accepted it. But now I got my Rathian, I can pursue after you."

She then paused.  
"I'll stop you from getting worse. I'm gonna make you act like you did before. You escaped to the skies before, but now I can follow you there."

Sean still didn't react. "Sure, if that's what you wanna do, I don't have the effort to stop you." He then walked away, leaving determination long behind him.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

I wasn't planning on writing comments, but it feels appropriate to put some here. The original story is split into two parts, the aimless first half which was written by my friend and the second half which just rushes to the plot and is also terrible.

While I was able to adapt the first half by just changing some things around and adding/removing a few scenes, the second half is kinda impossible for me since tone-wise it makes no sense and a lot just happens for no reason. I'm probably going to change a lot to make more sense for the characters, but in order to make certain aspects work there's likely going to be parts that feel forced. It could also make a few of the old references in G feel redundant, but I'm pretty sure I included a recap at the start for the old version and you can probably just ignore those. I guess you could read the old version if you felt in a so-bad-it's-good mood, but that's probably why you're already here.

Also I have to apologise for how fast it will feel after this relatively slow buildup arc, but that's just how it is on this bitch of an earth.


	5. Abrupt Finale (1)

Joseph rested on Daimyo's back "Looks like there's nothing to do today, huh?" He thought aloud, Daimyo not moving in agreement.

This nothing was interrupted by the plot. A Deviljho tore through Port Tanzia, roaring loudly.

"What."

* * *

The port was in a state of sudden chaos. Daimyo made his way down, to find the others equally confused.

"So ya got any idea what's going on?" Joseph asked.

"Not really," Zach answered "This just sorta started happening."

"Maybe it'll miss us?" Joseph joked, watching it cause a trail of destruction quite a distance away, before starting to move toward them "Never mind, then."

Everyone then attempted to escape as the Deviljho charged through where they once were. Still attempting to destroy whatever it could find, the Deviljho charged towards what was nearest, by coincidence Joseph and Daimyo.

Daimyo dug into the ground, Joseph still on his back. The Deviljho then lost focus on this and began to look around frantically, before seeing two wyverns flying away and chasing after them.

* * *

Sean and Alicia rested on the backs of their wyverns, trying to get out of Tanzia as fast as possible. The Deviljho charged at them, leaping through the air. Both wyverns moved to fly around it. The Deviljho crashed into the ground a short distance away, the ones being chased now heading in the direction the other group was to evade it. The Deviljho then leapt back up and started yet another charge.

The others tried to escape while it was away, but were unsuccessful when it came straight back towards them. Sean figured that he wouldn't be able to escape it easily, so he figured he'd have to distract it before he could get to the ocean.

The Deviljho roared, now in an arena with the cast. Sean began to shoot at it while Azure took into the air, attempting to keep his distance.

Ben didn't really have an idea what was going on other than there being a monster to kill in front of them, so he went to go do that with Plessy right behind him. Ben slashed at its side, only to find that his attack made barely any effect. The Deviljho turned, only to be hipchecked in the face by Plessy.

In this opening Anthony sprung off Wave's back, attempting to stun it by bashing it on the head. For a few seconds at least the monster was dazed, giving Wave enough time to wrap himself around it and electrify the Deviljho. He dropped to the ground and backed off, as the Deviljho still seemed unaffected.

Before the Deviljho got a chance to attack Riko moved in to strike it as hard as he could, followed by Alexandra charging at it from the other side. Sanchez ran along its side, with Callum standing on his back and slashing at it wildly.

Daimyo shot a beam of pressurised water straight at the Deviljho, while Joseph fired a rain of arrows from atop his partners skull.

Zappy then charged in and launched Zach into the air, where he plunged his gunlance into the Deviljho's neck and used a wyvern's fire, which in theory should've killed the Deviljho.

As he fell to the ground he was caught again and waited for his gunlance to cool off, only to turn around and find the Deviljho still standing, perfectly fine. The hunters charged in again, trying desperately to finish it off before it could do anything.

After a few minutes and what should've been many deaths, they found the Deviljho still refused to go down. In the opening it now had to attack, the monster stomped its foot, causing most of the group to be stopped. It then swung its head around for a dragon breath, knocking everyone unable to block backwards.

It didn't stop there, charging straight for Sean and Azure. This was narrowly missed, but it then spun around and leapt into the air towards them, hitting Azure out of the air this time.

Joseph looked up and noticed someone standing where the Deviljho was going to crash. He got Daimyo's attention quickly and the crab jumped at them, before knocking them out of the way with a sort of light punch, before then jumping in the same direction to avoid the impact.

Azure landed nearby, the Deviljho quickly turning to face him.

Alicia attempted to rush at it, only to have her Rathian swept aside by the Deviljho's tail.

In spite of its usual nature, the Deviljho seemed unable to be distracted by anything. It remained focused on Sean, above all else.

It closed on him, before pausing and opening its mouth. A noise emitted which no one expected.

"Time for revenge…"

Everyone was stunned into silence until Ben finally yelled "DID THAT DAMN DEVILJHO JUST SAY WORDS!?"

* * *

Daimyo crashed into the ground a short distance away, the person he punched to safety landing nearby.

"Ya reckon they good?" He asked Daimyo, receiving the reply of a shrug. They waited until they saw movement, then turned to go back to the fight, when Joseph suddenly heard the sound of a gun being fired from behind him.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	6. Abrupt Finale (2)

After processing what just happened, Sean decided to speak. "Revenge for what?"

"For killing me." The Deviljho replied, making everyone less shocked this time.

"Ya look pretty not-dead ta me. In fact, yer the picture of health, seeing as how yer still not dead after being killed so many times." Sean replied.

"Indeed, I can't die. Yet I am still furious that you killed me the first time. So I have decided to destroy everything with this new power, as I am so unkillable."

"Couldn't ya just like… not do that" Zach asked.

As the Deviljho was distracted by this source of noise, Ben sprung forwards again, which gave Azure enough time to recover and escape.

The Deviljho then went back to roaring, chasing after them once again.

* * *

The bullet approached Joseph's head. From the range at which it was fired, there should've been no chance of dodging. In that moment, he should've died. Yet, somehow, he avoided it.

He then spun towards the one who had shot at him, the person who up until a few seconds ago had been lying on the ground got ready to fire an arrow. Daimyo rushed forwards with Joseph on his back. The attacker quickly lept out of the way, only to have an arrow shot at them, which narrowly missed.

The attacker rose their gun once more and shot at Daimyo, hitting this time. Daimyo shot a beam of pressurised water, catching them off guard but still missing. He leapt into the air towards them, once again being narrowly dodged. The attacker raised their gun to fire, only to have Joseph suddenly appear and stab the gun with an arrow. The attacker dropped it and tried to move in with a kick, but Daimyo threw a punch from the side to knock them away. As this moment, their mask broke.

Joseph and Daimyo then sprung forward to surround this person as they hit the floor, with an arrow pointed to their head and a claw ready to crush it. Upon looking closer he realised this was a girl with green eyes and blonde hair.

"Why'd ya do that?" Joseph asked.

She remained silent.

"Answer or we'll just kill ya." He explained.

"I've been sent to kill anyone who saw what that Deviljho could do." She finally said.

"Why?"

"Because it's meant to be confidential."

"What's the deal with it, anyways? It's pretty clear our attacks weren't working."

"I don't know anything."

"It's pretty clear ya do, if yer here to deal with it."

"About as much can be observed. It regenerates from attacks and seems more intelligent than before."

"Well, that's about all I got." Joseph muttered, before continuing with "Anyways yer gonna help us kill that thing."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to just run?"

"I gotta help everyone still there out first. Not like there's much point being alive if those guys die."

"I don't get what you're saying at all."

"Living for others's what I do, prolly. Anyways, what's yer name? I never asked."

"...Viridi, I guess."

Joseph and Daimyo then started to leave to go to the battle, when Viridi leapt up, grabbed her gun and ran off. Daimyo began to pursue but was stopped "We ain't got time. Just gotta hope she's gone for good. Let's go."

* * *

The fight continued onwards, with all the hunters being worn out by this point.

Joseph finally rejoined the group. Daimyo shot a beam of pressurised water while Joseph fired arrows, it tried to counter with a stomp but Daimyo was able to jump into the air in time.

Azure then charged at the Jho from the side, Sean still shooting at it from atop his back, while Alicia fired from a distance.

The others got ready to rush in, but suddenly the Deviljho turned its head, as if losing focus. "That seems more important than this." It muttered. The Deviljho then raced off towards somewhere.

Joseph was left in a state of confusion, until Zach explained they'd already had this reaction before, it's just sort of something you have to accept.

* * *

An airship flew over the port.

"Is that our target?" A deep sounding voice asked, hoping for the best response.

"Well, it seems to be the cause of all this destruction, so why not?"

"Still, be careful, we're not meant to attract attention. Just quickly deal with it." Another voice added.

"Got it." The first voice responded, not actually listening.

They then dropped from the ship, straight towards the Deviljho.

The Deviljho swung its tail around, knocking the person flying.

More dropped out of the airship.

The Deviljho lunged for the one falling more slowly, only to somehow completely miss, then receiving a sword strike to the side.

The other one falling through the sky slashed at it while falling. The first one down sprung towards the Deviljho, without any weapons, and just punched it so hard it was knocked backwards.

Another person dropped from the ship, yelling something about beauty. When the Deviljho looked up, it was blinded.

It wildly stomped about, but upon hitting something it felt cuts cover its entire body.

Music loudly played, surrounding it. It felt its movements slow down, as someone gave a difficult to hear report nearby. Finally, one last hunter stepped forwards, seeming to be a leader.

"Let's finish this quickly."

Within a few seconds, it was over.

* * *

The leader of the group walked back to the airship, at which point other members of the group boarded.

"Have those who witnessed its abilities been dealt with?"

All of them reported back with confirmation, even though for one that was untrue.

While it was dangerous, to multiple lives, the liar was uncaring for the risk. A new emotion was within her, which she hadn't experienced. Curiosity. Wanting to understand someone who was reliant on others for survival, as someone who'd spent her entire life expecting everyone to be reliant on themselves.

* * *

Meanwhile all the other hunters had collapsed, sort of out of exhaustion.

After some recovery, they were fine again, despite the two bowgun users having vanished.

After about two months, they decided it was best to go somewhere.

"Dundorma sound good?" Zach suggested.

"Why?" Ben asked.

"Like… why not?"

So they decided to go there.

A boat appeared at the harbour, followed by them boarding it alongside their monsters.

They watched as the new world disappeared, leaving the destruction behind.

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

So there's the end of the rewrite of DBA. I learnt that if you don't enjoy writing something you shouldn't write it. But it's finished now, which is convenient. It was kind of a mess, but it's at least better than reading the original. I even had to introduce something which should've been far further down the line to keep it interesting. Please read G, it had actual fun put into it.


End file.
